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Microsoft ho Robert Scoble talks about John Dvorak's recent bullshit regarding Apple's "plans" to move to Intel chips. Robert says:

John seems to think that if everyone talks about his outrageous ideas and links to him, that that makes him successful. OK, I cry uncle cause I'm talking about him, and linking to him.

Scoble, you got played. John doesn't "seem" to think that - he knows that. You played right into his hand. Presented below is part of an article I wrote in August, 1999 about John Dvorak. Robert? Wake up. The time you spent refuting Dvorak's "case" could have been much better spent, don'tcha think?

I'm not one of the stupid ones. I see right through John Dvorak. Much has been written about his recent attack on the "girly" iBook, and perhaps deservedly so. Like a groundhog trapped in a corner, Mac folk have bared their teeth in a vain attempt to escape from Dvorak's own version of the reality distortion field. But who is the player, and who the played?

It's my opinion that John Dvorak is one of the smartest folks around, and most people are too stupid to see it. I see it. I believe he's one of the leading "journalists" of our time. Make no mistake about it; my general distaste for "journalists" applies here as with any other case. However, my distaste for his ilk does not preclude me from honestly saying that he's one smart cookie.

You see, John knows one thing that we also know about ourselves as Mac users - we're easily riled up. We're quasi-fanatical. We've suffered through years of pure junk regarding the health of Apple and the quality of its products and, now that we're on our way back up, we have even less patience for such "journalism." Dvorak and his kind press our buttons. I read the article, and had I not already had the concept for this article, I might have been button-pressed along with the rest of you.

How do we reward such inane comments as "girly" and "we want macho computers?" Why, stupid us, we pummel the off article with hundreds of thousands of hits, making him and whatever website is hosting said article entirely too much money. He plays you, the Mac user, for a fool. He is probably, and very literally, laughing all the way to the bank. "Stupid Mac users, they never learn, do they?" he's saying at this very moment.

John Dvorak has been using the same "arguments" (or "ploys," take your pick) for ages. When the Mac first came out, he called it "girly" as well. He criticized the mouse as a "toy" that "no real man" would be seen with. Sound familiar? Sound just like the iBook article he wrote? Yup. He's been recycling material for years (decades!). And all of you are gullible enough to keep reading it and being enraged by it. Maybe the fact that PC Magazine itself bills his column as "Dvorak's News & Views - Outrageous opinions and inside scoops" should tell you something. Disregard the "news" parts because he never has any, and focus on the outrageous opinions. Think about that.

Like a supermarket tabloid, John Dvorak knows darn well that controversy sells. That's the premise of the entire newspaper industry, so far as I, an outsider, can tell. Get the scoop, and you'll sell. John doesn't get the scoops, he makes the scoops up on his own. He sells himself and his column to the highest bidder - the enraged Apple fans that visit by the gross ton, post "Talkback" items, and see, see, see all those pretty little ads. Ah, what cash can do. He's a pimp, folks, it's just that he's doing it legally.

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